Swept Away
by QueenKatniss
Summary: Katniss Everdeen fed her family the way she knew how: fishing off the little seaside town of Atlantica, Florida. When a brutal storm sinks her boat into the Atlantic in the middle of the night, and Katniss ends up back on the sand fifty miles away, she has no explanation other than the unfamiliar person sitting next to her. Mer!Peeta x Fisherman!Katniss


Katniss Everdeen could swim. Her father taught her when she was barely old enough to remember in the lake behind their house. He'd taught her how to tread water, to take three big breaths before holding it to go beneath its surface. He'd shown her how to float on her back and to stroke her way forward quick enough to cross that lake in under thirty seconds. When they'd moved to the seaside town of Atlantica when she was eleven he'd made sure she understood currents and riptides, how to ride them out and not fight against them. Above all, he taught her to respect the water because as strong a swimmer as Katniss was she was "no match for Poseidon," her father had joked.

Even after he'd died that same year, she'd sworn to do right by him and keep showing her respect for the sea. In the years after, she'd learned to boat as well. She'd taken a fishing job soon after he'd passed, lying about being sixteen and old enough to fish with the much older men. But someone had taken pity on her. He'd only asked one question before letting her come aboard, "Can you swim?" the old, weather worn man had squinted at her across the pier early one summer morning. Katniss thought of her father when she took a breath and said, "Yes, sir" in a clear voice. The man nodded and motioned for her to come aboard.

She'd learned to fish quickly alongside the other men. She'd pulled her weight and then some, and she'd quickly become one of the best fishermen at the pier. She'd moved her way quickly from small independently owned boaters who just needed a hand, up to commercial fishing lines. She'd sweat and froze and bled along with men triple her age. And she kept her family fed.

Now, almost ten years later, she was going to die by the very source that had kept her alive.

The fishing boat she'd been assigned to was an ancient one. But old was often a sign of a well-made craft from her experience. She'd had no qualms about going out with a familiar crew, into familiar waters to fish for the better part of a week. She'd told her sister where she'd be going, and now that Prim was almost sixteen Katniss knew she wouldn't have to worry about leaving her almost completely alone that long. And the pay would be enough to make up for it.

But within twenty-four hours of the trek into the Atlantic things had gone very, very wrong. A summer squall blew in at midnight with next to no warning, which wasn't unusual for July. But this storm had a mean edge, and the vessel started retaining water almost immediately. Katniss had turned on the pumps herself and worked frantically with the other fishermen to get the water out. The waves crashed against the hull. The wind and water beat mercilessly while the lightning split the sky over and over. Katniss and her crewmates had to scream to each other to be heard over the deafening thunder and roar of the water.

When the power generator completely shut down the inside of the boat was snuffed out into coal-black darkness. The captain had bellowed to abandon ship and Katniss and everyone else scrambled back to the deck, the rocking boat's only source of light coming from the lightning currently ripping the sky to shreds.

She and the others pulled out the lifeboats and began pulling the strings to inflate them. Everyone on board wore a lifejacket, but in all the chaos Katniss had forgotten that she'd never buckled the straps across her chest. She'd put the vest on early in the night before the storm had risen and quickly forgot about her oversight.

The crew shrieked commands to each other, everyone soaked to the bone and lighted by the sky, their movements frantic.

A giant wave crested over the rail of the ship and knocked the feet out from under half the group, Katniss included. She was pulling herself to her knees when an even bigger wave rose up and loomed over the boat before crashing over them all. The ship tilted severely to the right

Everyone on board heard the unmistakable crack of the hull. The earsplitting sound shattered through both the thunder and the thick air.

People threw lifeboats overboard and dove in after them. They'd had a system in place of who would go to who's boat if something like this should ever arise, and Katniss knew she should go to Port and dive there in order to get to the lifeboat with the crewmates they'd decided upon. But right now she was on Starboard side and the boat was turned almost completely on its right, offering her no hope of leaving the way she'd planned. Katniss prayed her swimming skills would be enough to get her to _any_ life raft at this point.

The ship was sinking quickly beneath her and the black ocean stretched out in front of her. The drop from the rail to the water was shorter than it should've been and soon she was neck deep in the Atlantic. Her head whipped back and forth as she tried to see any rafts nearby but the rain and the sloshing water blinded her. Katniss kicked her feet and pushed herself forward, trying and failing to see anything but black water and gray rain.

Her instincts told her to paddle, paddle, get away from the sinking ship. So she did. She swam as fast as she could, the water and wind battering her face as she gasped for air. The groans of the ship behind her told her it was capsizing and would be pulling everything nearby down with it as it sank. She pushed herself harder and faster.

In another burst of lightning she saw a flash of yellow straight out in front of her, but before she could even take a breath to head toward it a wave catapulted over her and buried her beneath the surface.

Katniss kicked and pushed against the water around her, pulling with her arms toward the surface. The inky black water gave no relief and panic filled her lungs along with her precious last bit of oxygen.

The sinking feeling only grew stronger and Katniss could feel the pull of the water around her, drawing her deeper. She lifted her arms to push against it and felt her life jacket sweep off her shoulders and up her arms. Her hands clawed the water to catch it but the vest was already travelling too quickly toward the surface. The pull of the sinking ship was stronger without the buoyancy of the vest and Katniss couldn't even pull her arms to her sides. Her lungs screamed for air and her body ached from exhaustion.

The booms of thunder and rain and crashing of waves were muted and there was nothing Katniss could feel but water.

This was the end. She wished for a better ending so that at least Prim would have something to bury. She wished for it to be peaceful and not painful when her body would finally take over and pull water into her lungs in their desperation for air. She wished this wasn't the end.

She wished until the darkness took over.

Salt burned her throat and nose. The blackness around her lifted and gave way to gray behind her eyelids as she sat up and heaved. Sea water rose up and out of her nose and mouth as she heaved and gagged. After she emptied her stomach, Katniss drew in air in big, gulping breaths. She coughed and sputtered and dragged air into her lungs. Her fingers dug into the sand around her and black hair hung in wet ropes around her face.

Tears dripped down her damp face as she pulled in breath after breath. She gave in to the exhaustion she felt and fell back to the sand. She rolled over and closed her eyes as her breathing slowed. Her hands dug into the sand at her sides.

Sand.

Katniss's eyes flew open as she began to register everything that had happened. The boat, the life vest, the pull of the water, the burning in her lungs.

What had happened? She and her crew were fifty miles into the ocean when they'd capsized. Now, here she was, on land. There were no islands near where she'd been. And the last thing she remembered she'd been buried deep beneath the water.

Her vision was blurry and her eyes stung. She could barely make out the gray of the clouds above her. The crashing of the waves was becoming clearer as the water drained from her ears.

Katniss blinked her eyes to clear them.

Her own voice was barely recognizable when she croaked out "How?" to herself.

She didn't expect a response. She got one, anyway.

"Hi," a deep voice spoke to her left.

Katniss jolted and her head whipped in the direction of the voice. What she saw made her certain she was hallucinating.

A boy was sitting about a foot away from her. His light golden hair was dripping wet and clinging to the sides of his face, the front was pushed up out of his eyes haphazardly. His eyes were a stunning shade of blue. She was certain she'd never seen a blue quite as bold, and she'd seen the sky and the ocean in every shape and form they could take. His jaw was wide and square set beneath a full mouth. His shoulders were broad and corded with muscle. He wore no shirt and was dripping wet all over. He was absolutely stunning.

The light from the moon was shining through the thinning clouds and cast everything in a gray shimmer. He sat and stared back while she gazed at him. He could almost see her thought process in her face. Shock; confusion; curiosity; fear.

The boy lifted a hand as if to halt her thoughts. "I know. You're very confused," he spoke again. His voice was low and deep, and it seemed to vibrate the air between them. "But please don't be frightened of me. I won't hurt you."

Katniss had pushed onto her elbows while he spoke. Her vision had begun to clear and she looked at him closely. He looked like an average guy, aside from his almost ethereal beauty. But something was… off. The skin across his chest was pale and taut and impossibly smooth. Was it because he had no hair there?

Her eyes traveled down his stomach, noting that he had no hair there either. When she reached where his hips tapered in his skin seemed to… change. What was incredibly smooth skin slowly morphed into small, shimmering plates, layered one diagonal row after another. The colors mutated from pale white to a sea foam green. The farther her eyes traveled the darker the green grew. Until the dark, forest green narrowed smaller and smaller before fanning out into two translucent fins.

Fins. Not plates; scales.

Katniss stared at the _tail_ in front of her. Her mind was still somewhat foggy but she was aware enough to know that there couldn't technically, realistically be a mermaid sitting next to her on the beach.

She blinked. It was still there, almost glowing on the sand in front of her. Was she still deep in the water somewhere and her mind was hallucinating from lack of oxygen?

Her eyes travelled back up to this boy's face. He was watching her patiently, yet warily.

"Um," Katniss ground out through a sore throat. Somehow she couldn't come up with anything to say. If this was just a normal guy she'd be petrified, being alone in the middle of the night with him, the exhaustion from drowning leaving her with no strength of her own to speak of.

But having decided she was just floating somewhere between death and unconsciousness, she had no words to say to this person.

This beautiful mermaid apparently didn't need her to. "You're definitely thinking that you're dreaming or hallucinating, right?"

Katniss didn't respond.

"That's probably normal. I don't blame you." He replied.

She continued to stare at him.

"I'll explain to you what happened, if you'd like." Katniss gave a tiny nod of her head in response.

"I was swimming closer to the surface than I normally do. It was late at night and I couldn't sleep. Just restless, I guess. I could hear the storm from the surface. I swam up to the warmer waters. I saw your ship split underneath after a wave crashed into it. A few seconds after I saw humans from your ship start entering the water. I was going to leave when I saw you. Your hair let me know you were the only girl in your group that I could see. I was curious. You were pushed under the water and part of your clothing, around your chest, came off. I turned to leave.

"I am not allowed to do what I did. But when I turned back to look at you again, you were so deep underneath the water. Your hands and legs weren't helping you get higher.

"I swam to you as fast as I could. Your eyes closed right before I reached you. I pulled you up to the surface. But you still didn't breathe. I couldn't give you to your shipmates without being found out. I kept your head above the water while I swam you to shore. I thought I was too late. I managed to give you air in your lungs until you started coughing a few moments ago."

He stared into Katniss's eyes as he spoke. This person was telling her he'd saved her life. That he'd _swam_ her fifty miles from the wreckage and performed CPR on her to revive her. This person with a tail where his legs should be.

Nothing about this felt like a dream. The sand on her arms itched. The drying salt water on her face made her feel stiff. Her lungs burned with every breath she took and her throat felt like sandpaper. She was so insanely thirsty. Her head ached and her muscles were weak. If this was a hallucination to make her feel better it was a sucky one.

Well, all except for the gorgeous blonde telling her how he saved her life. And why, despite her practical, rational best efforts was she almost believing him?

She decided to sit up, but on her journey from her elbows to a sitting position the ground tilted beneath her. She found herself laying on her side back in the sand.

"Whoa, be careful. You were asleep for a bit. And you swallowed a lot of sea water. Are you all right?"

Asleep? He didn't know she'd been unconscious, not sleeping?

The boy was leaning in close to her face, his hand outstretched as if he almost touched her but stopped at the last second.

"Who are you?" Katniss asked groggily.

He smiled brightly at her. "Peeta," he answered. "My name is Peeta."

Katniss thought for a moment. "Peeta. Thank you, for saving my life."

Something in his incredible eyes shifted when she spoke his name. "You're welcome," he spoke softly.

She took her time and sat up slowly. Letting her head adjust to the movement. Peeta kept his hands close in case she needed help. Once she was seated she looked at her surroundings for the first time. They were sitting about 10 feet away from the tide rolling in and out. The sand beneath her was pebbly. Although she couldn't tell exactly where their location was she knew by the shape of the beach house about 200 yards away that they were probably in or close to Atlantica.

Suddenly, she remembered her shipmates.

"Oh, my gosh," she whispered. "Peeta," she said as she turned toward him quickly, her head swimming a little at the movement. "Did you see anyone else drown? Do you know how many people were in the water when you found me?" Somewhere in the past few minutes Katniss had decided to believe him enough to ask about everyone else.

"I didn't count, exactly. But I think it was eight. Or nine. If anyone jumped after you I didn't notice them, I was only paying attention to you." Peeta's voice trailed off at the end of his sentence. Katniss couldn't be sure in the dim light but he looked ashamed at his oversight.

Katniss thought for a few moments. There had been nine of them on the ship. If there were eight others in the water then everyone else should've survived. She could only hope that he was right.

Peeta looked out at the ocean while Katniss looked at him. His face was pinched in concern. Everything about him looked so… real. Katniss doubted her own mind could come up with something this exquisite. His hair was drying and curling on his forehead. The dry pieces were even paler blonde now without the water to darken them. His arms were tensed as he lent his weight on them, the muscles standing out in shadow.

Her eyes drifted of their own accord back to his tail. It still looked wet. The rest of him looked fairly dry but his tail glistened. Each scale shimmered iridescent in the faint light. Katniss' fingers tingled with the impulse to touch them. She kept her hands in her lap.

"You're oddly calm about all of this," Peeta laughed, motioning with a hand to his fin.

Katniss couldn't help the small smile that crept across her face. "I'm just as surprised as you are," she murmured.

"I wish I could get you something. Something to make you more comfortable. But… this… isn't really where I'd know how to find you anything," he offered, his hand gesturing around them.

Katniss laughs a little. "Yeah. A little water - fresh water - sounds wonderful."

Peeta's head circled in both directions looking for anything to help her and came up with nothing.

When he turned back in her direction a perplexed look spread across her features.

"Peeta?" she asked.

His eyebrows rose at the question in her voice.

"You said you couldn't take me to my crew because you could be found out."

He said nothing.

"So, why did you stay with me after I'd woken up? If helping me wasn't allowed, you said? But you let me see you. Why isn't it allowed?"

Peeta pushed his fingers into the sand near his hip and looked down. "I'm… what I am- we aren't- we aren't allowed to go near… what you are. Humans. It's forbidden.

"I was supposed to let you drown. We don't offer help, we don't let you see us, we don't let you know in any way that we are here."

Katniss chewed her bottom lip and watched his tail twitch as the tide crept closer toward them.

"I helped you because… I couldn't… _not_ help you. I wasn't supposed to be there. I wanted to swim in the warmer waters closer to the surface. My mother would have me pinned if she knew I'd left so late. I shouldn't have been there but I was. And I knew if I left and pretended I'd never seen anything I'd regret it. I couldn't leave you to drown. I-."

He stops short and his head swivels to the right, his eyes land on something behind her. Katniss follows his direction a second later and notices the light glowing in the window of the little beach house.

A splash pulls her attention back to Peeta but he isn't there. Her head swivels on her neck in all directions, and still, no Peeta.

"Peeta!" she whispers as loud as she dares. Her eyes search the waves crashing in front of her and come up empty. He's gone. All that's left is two hand prints on the sand where he'd sat, and soon even those will be gone with how quickly the tide is pushing in.

Katniss slowly stands on trembling legs and crosses her arms over her chest.

She should go to the little house and ask for help. Explain what happened. Call Prim and find a way home. But she can't bring herself to do anything other than stare at the water lapping itself toward her. Her eyes drift back toward the little house but she doesn't move.

 _What just happened?_

Her bones are spent and her eyelids dip. She takes several steps in the direction of the house before her knees give out. She manages to crawl up to the whiter, softer sand where she knows the tide won't reach her. She pillows her head on her arm and sprawls on her side. Her eyes blinks a few times at the blurry light that's too far to reach tonight. And she falls instantly to sleep.


End file.
